What I noticed is, the stuttering seems to come from my CPU having a hard time working with BF3 and my crossfire setup because of it's low speed (it's @ 3.6ghz instead of my usual 4ghz)...

Maybe my mobo doesn't help either... All I know is, when my cpu is @ 4ghz, no stutter whatsoever... but I can't keep that OC... too unstable for my current rig right now (especially temps a bit too high)...

So I'm thinking, U guys prob don't have the problems I have because you're on the 2nd gen of i7 or i5... running crazy high CPU speed... like 4.6ghz.. or 4.8ghz...

With high/ultra settings, 1080p resolution and AA turned off I can run it without any stuttering. I haven't bothered to benchmark it because it runs so smooth. I'm planning to unlock and overclock my GPU today, but to make long story short, here is my advice for you.

1. It makes no sense at all tweaking your hardware. It is a beast and should run BF3 with everything maxed out. So my only guess is that you have software issues.

3. If the GPU is being the bottleneck, download and try the latest "beta" nvidia driver. AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview 3. With this driver I've had 0 problems.

Best of luck.

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I went ahead and tried your test... and it looks like my CPU is holding back the cards a little... for me CPU is yellow and GPU green... When the stuttering happens I see that the GPU line seems to spike up a little while the CPU is pretty much at the same line the whole time...

I'm pretty sure that when I try this with my 4ghz OC and RAM oc, it should change a little...

I went ahead and tried your test... and it looks like my CPU is holding back the cards a little... for me CPU is yellow and GPU green... When the stuttering happens I see that the GPU line seems to spike up a little while the CPU is pretty much at the same line the whole time...

I'm pretty sure that when I try this with my 4ghz OC and RAM oc, it should change a little...

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This sucks, I feel your pain.

Seems like you've tried pretty much everything. Did you try the driver I suggested? It's a beta driver and in the release notes it claims to fix a lot of issues for people running BF3 in "crossfire"... I don't know what else to do.

I haven't read the whole thread but just wanted to share my experience. I had a lot of stuttering in BF3 with my setup, it got progressively better with the newer drivers but was still noticeable. I have just installed the newest 11.10 WHQL and CAP4 and the game plays perfect. No stuttering and good FPS. I do still get some green flashes on the screen but these are only very small/quick and intermittent.

just because you spent "2.8K" on a system doesnt mean anything. except that you spent more money than you should have >.>

and then you bring up an old game like crysis saying it runs fine?

I think you need to stop making assumptions and start thinking about the problem here - maybe your overclock is wrong, your unlocked cards arent working right, or your OS is just screwed (and yes, that happens. a format can fix a lot of problems)

blaming it on the game is the easy way out, it just means you dont want to admit something you did to your system, hardware or software, could be the problem.

What I noticed is, the stuttering seems to come from my CPU having a hard time working with BF3 and my crossfire setup because of it's low speed (it's @ 3.6ghz instead of my usual 4ghz)...

Maybe my mobo doesn't help either... All I know is, when my cpu is @ 4ghz, no stutter whatsoever... but I can't keep that OC... too unstable for my current rig right now (especially temps a bit too high)...

So I'm thinking, U guys prob don't have the problems I have because you're on the 2nd gen of i7 or i5... running crazy high CPU speed... like 4.6ghz.. or 4.8ghz...

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Mate turn off hyperthreading and you'll be able to get that CPU stable at 4ghz. HT was shown to barely give BF3 any performance improvements infact it did the opposite for some people and hindered performance.

just because you spent "2.8K" on a system doesnt mean anything. except that you spent more money than you should have >.>

and then you bring up an old game like crysis saying it runs fine?

I think you need to stop making assumptions and start thinking about the problem here - maybe your overclock is wrong, your unlocked cards arent working right, or your OS is just screwed (and yes, that happens. a format can fix a lot of problems)

blaming it on the game is the easy way out, it just means you dont want to admit something you did to your system, hardware or software, could be the problem.

1. I did not spend too much, I bought everything off the internet with the cheapest prices one could get (at the time of course)... There's no such thing as too much, when you want crisp and clean power from your PC... but that here is clearly a matter of opinion... so I consider that when you say "you spent too much" that is not a FACT but an opinion...

2. Crysis is known to be one of the most demanding pc game of all times (both crysis and crysis warhead. They are both very GPU and CPU demanding...) So yes sir, I do consider that game a good "benchmark" for anyone's overclock... unlock... you name it.

3. My cards are not unlocked with the 6970's bios... they only have their shaders unlocked... I restored them to their default bios and it didn't fix the stuttering... It is true that stuff like my OC, windows install or driver residue IS capable of causing problems. But Like I said, I tested all of those things, I even went back to older dx11 titles (like DA2, Witcher 2 etc...) and no stuttering (when @ 4ghz)

4. Clearly, if you have taken any 5 minutes of your time to google it, and looked @ the EA forums, you would see that I am indeed CORRECT in blaming the game this time.... or at least in saying it has had MAJOR issues since the beta, and even since the official release. But again, this has been true, mostly for SLI and CF users... TRUE enough for AMD (don't know about Nvidia) to release brand new drivers to fix the situation (right after the game's release...) Now doesn't that tell you in Neon lights that the game devs must have missed something... like possibly looking into possible CF glitchy performance?

4. I do believe that sometimes just a little patience goes a long way for PC games... Often, new drivers will come out or patches from the game devs... and stuff gets fixed... So, yes forgive my young age, when some games come out, I get excited and anticipating, and patience is not always the dominating sentiment in those moments...

Mate turn off hyperthreading and you'll be able to get that CPU stable at 4ghz. HT was shown to barely give BF3 any performance improvements infact it did the opposite for some people and hindered performance.

It is easy to mistake that the lag or small jumps and fluctuations you get in the game are cause by some keyboard/LAN/Network/Internet settings when it's not.

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True that... I didn't try lowering the v-core now that HT's off... I'm gonna try upping the CPU speed back to 4ghz... (pretty sure that should bring the CPU up to speed with the GPUs...) Thx for the tip

I just don't understand why people think it's the CPU. If my 4 core, 8 thread FX-8150 can run this game with CrossFire (1gb cards no less) without stuttering, I would think his Intel chip could do the same. There HAS to be something else creating the stuttering.

I just don't understand why people think it's the CPU. If my 4 core, 8 thread FX-8150 can run this game with CrossFire (1gb cards no less) without stuttering, I would think his Intel chip could do the same. There HAS to be something else creating the stuttering.

Like I hear where you are coming form, but there are only so many possible causes...software problems(possible and likely), or that the CPU just sucks for BF3(also possible).

BF3 is the wrong app to mention BD chips anyway, as AMD is even hyping 8150 with nV cards for BF3. Why?

All I know is that I have 2600K, HT on/HT off didn't make any difference. And I have no stutter. You know how big of a boost SB can give even single cards...and I know you perosnally have like NONE of the issues the rest of us do. The App sucks.